1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to an electro-acoustic transducer, and more particularly, to a micromachined capacitive electro-acoustic transducer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electro-acoustic transducers convert electric energy to acoustic energy or vice versa and may include, for example, ultrasonic transducers and microphones. Micromachined electro-acoustic transducers use a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS). An example of the micromachined electro-acoustic transducer is a micromachined ultrasonic transducer (MUT), which is a device that converts an electric signal to an ultrasonic signal or vice versa. An MUT may be classified into a piezoelectric MUT (pMUT), a capacitive MUT (cMUT), and a magnetic MUT (mMUT), according to the signal converting method. Among these ultrasonic transducers, a cMUT is widely used in medical image diagnostic devices and/or sensors.